Biotech, Info Tech, the Future and Space

The USA Freedom Act – the best thing a lame duck Senate can do

When confronted with a giant cache of secret documents from Edward Snowden, the first story Glenn Greenwald wrote was about the National Security Agency’s “bulk collection” program harvesting data from every US phone call. Seventeen months after that program was made public, it may finally get an up-or-down vote in the US Senate.

Reid has filed for a “cloture” vote to end debate, which will require 60 votes. That will be the biggest hurdle, since the bill can then be passed out of the Senate with a simple majority. It’s not a foregone conclusion that it will pass; some hawkish Senators are on record as being strong supporters of bulk surveillance, including Select Intelligence Committee head Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA).

At least this moves the process along. The authoritarians in the Senate, including some powerful Democrats and Republicans, had prevented this bill from moving forward.

Perhaps those interesting the more distributed and democratic principles we were founded on (which includes both Democrats and Republicans) may have a chance to actually do something that puts even the slightest burden on the security state.

I hope it can move us forward, even if it fails. Because the battle between authority and democracy is the pivotal conflict of the current age.

Because it is very different from the House version (more protective of the US people against the security state) and there were several powerful Senators of both parties who opposed it. I do not expect this to pass at all. It is most likely simply a political ploy. By the way, the incoming GOP head of the Senate Intelligence Committee is even more authoritarian than Feinstein and wants to keep all the meetings secret. And since one of the few Senators who was pushing for greater openness and oversight of the NSA was defeated, I expect we will see a lot worse from the NSA before things get better.